Abstract
Using survey data from three nationally representative surveys in 2004, 2009, and 2014 among senior high school students in Sweden, this study investigates trends in adolescents’ lifetime prevalence of pornography use, frequency of pornography use, and type of pornography used over time. While almost all boys and a considerable proportion of girls used pornography across the three waves, the lifetime prevalence of pornography use decreased overall for both girls and boys. The share of boys who use pornography frequently increased over the three survey cycles; those who reported using pornography daily increased from 11% in 2004 to 24% in 2014. In contrast, there was no change in girls who reported using pornography daily, while the proportion who never used pornography increased from 40% in 2004 to 51% in 2014. Adolescents appear to use a narrower range of different pornography types over the survey cycles. Multiple logistic regression models were generated to investigate factors associated with pornography use over the 10-year period. The results suggest that rule-breaking behavior, having higher economic status and higher academic achievement were related to boy’s pornography use, while rule-breaking behavior, early sexual debut and victimization were associated with girls’ pornography use.
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the Committee into knowledge concerning sexual exploitation of children in Sweden (S 2003:5) at the Swedish Social Ministry and the Crime Victim Compensation and Support Authority in Sweden (first study, 2004); the Swedish Agency for Youth and Civil Society (second study, 2009): the Swedish Ministry of Health and Social Affairs, Children’s Welfare Foundation Sweden and the Swedbank Scientific Research Foundation for their financial support (third study, 2014).
Funding
This study was supported by the Committee into knowledge concerning sexual exploitation of children in Sweden (S 2003:5) at the Swedish Social Ministry and the Crime Victim Compensation and Support Authority in Sweden (first data collection wave, 2004); the Swedish Agency for Youth and Civil Society (second data collection wave, 2009): the Swedish Ministry of Health and Social Affairs, Children’s Welfare Foundation Sweden and the Swedbank Scientific Research Foundation (third data collection wave, 2014).
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Design of the study, researched data, drafting and editing were performed by Meghan Donevan, Carl Göran Svedin, Linda Jonsson, and Marie Bladh. Editing and drafting contributions were provided by Gisela Priebe and Cecilia Fredlund. All authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript.
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Non-financial interests: Data analysis and manuscript write-up were undertaken, while Meghan Donevan was an employee of Talita, a Swedish non-profit organization supporting women in prostitution, pornography and human trafficking for sexual purposes. All opinions presented in this manuscript belong to the authors alone, and not any institutions to which they are or were affiliated. The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
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The study was performed in accordance with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. The three data collection waves (2004, 2009, 2014) were approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee, Medical Faculty, Lund University (2003, Dnr 938-02) and the Regional Ethical Review Board of Linköping (2009, Dnr 220-08 and 2014, Dnr 131-31).
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Donevan, M., Jonsson, L., Bladh, M. et al. Adolescents’ Use of Pornography: Trends over a Ten-year Period in Sweden. Arch Sex Behav 51, 1125–1140 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-021-02084-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-021-02084-8